Brews News: Jays could add to their ballpark beer roster

Brews News: Jays could add to their ballpark beer roster

The Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays have one thing in common. They're both in for long, sad seasons of 80 or more losses, but at least the fans in Comerica Park will have more hip options with which to drown their baseball sorrow.

The Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays have one thing in common. They’re both in for long, sad seasons of 80 or more losses, but at least the fans in Comerica Park will have more hip options with which to drown their baseball sorrow.

The Detroit fan experience, from its frequent post-game fireworks (literally fireworks, not fisticuffs) and craft beer sales, are among the best in Major League Baseball. The Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre give it a good shot with Mill Street beers, but ignore the cornucopia of beers from independent brewers in Toronto and area.

In Detroit, the selection is pure Michigan.

From Bell’s, the pride of Kalamazoo and Comstock, there’s Oberon wheat and Two Hearted IPA along with beers in rotation. From Founders of Grand Rapids, there’s Breakfast Stout. There’s beer from Arbor Brewing of Ann Arbor, Arcadia of Kalamazoo, farmhouse ales from Brewery Vivant of Grand Rapids, and Cheboygan blood orange honey from northern Michigan.

There are beers from right in the Motor City, Keweenaw from way, way up there in the Upper Peninsula, and from Grand Armory Brewinc Co. in the Lake Michigan beach town of Grand Haven, White Chocolate Blonde.

Detroit’s Atwater has been selling its craft beer at Tigers’ games since 1997, going back to the old Tigers Stadium.That’s 22 years of beers such as Dirty Blond and Better Life Choices IPA.

The Tigers have a splendidly curated craft beer tour of Michigan, worthy of the best beer festivals, but did I mention the Blue Jays offer Mill Street Organic?

As impressive as Comerica Park is, it might not even be the best craft beer hangout in the major leagues. Four years ago, the Washington Post celebrated Safeco Field, home to the Seattle Mariners, where at that time 70 per cent of the stadium’s 700 tap-handles were dedicated to craft beer, outselling macro brands four-to-one. In Cincinnati, the Reds Brewery District at the Great American Ballpark features scores of craft taps.

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre have as much or more to work with as Detroit, unless of course there’s no interest in attracting a new demographic who reject the beers their parents drank, even at a bargain $5 price.

Left Field, the diamond-standard Toronto brewery owned by baseball fanatics who name each of their beers for the game, is an obvious starter. Great Lakes of Etobicoke, Indie Alehouse, Henderson the potential to deepen the Blue Jays beer roster is endless. They could even throw in the new Toronto-brewed New Belgium Fat Tire, a brand that’s already one of the most popular craft beers sold in several American parks.

New and noted

Maybe if the Blue Jays can’t embrace beers from specific independent breweries they can sign up a free agent of sorts. The Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, which organizes events and has been brewing small batches of one-off beers, have a larger batch saison well suited to warm evenings at the ballpark.

Brewed at Henderson in Toronto, the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies’ Blood Orange saison, aka Brew0001 is the first of an ongoing series of beers from the group which is available at the LCBO. Brew0002 will arrive in fall 2019.

Blood Orange saison used concentrate from Oregon Specialty Fruit in Salem, Oregon, and New World Saison Yeast from Escarpment Laboratories of Guelph. Tart and citrusy, golden in colour, Blood Orange saison is a season-appropriate refreshing experience. It’s $3.85 for a 473 ml can or on tap at Henderson. Keep tabs on SBDL via Twitter (@LadiesDrinkBeer).

“We’ve spent over five years running the Society, hosting everything from intimate beer dinners to our large Lady beer festivals in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa and we’ve worked with dozens of craft breweries across the province on smaller beer collab(orations)s too,” said SOBDL co-founder Erica Campbell in a news release. “I’m thrilled to take this next step with Henderson, to produce on a large scale, and have it on LCBO shelves across Ontario.”

For mom

I loved that Railway City Brewing Co., of St. Thomas served and sold a tribute beer marking the 50th instalment of The London Free Press Shunpiker Mother’s Day Mystery Tour. Shunpiker beer, in 473 ml cans, is the souvenir of the half-century.

More Cowbell

Since selling its first beer in 2016, community-focused Cowbell of Blyth has been donating five cents a can or draft glass to the Greener Pastures Community Fund. Now, three years later, the fund has raised an amazing $250,000 to benefit children’s hospitals in London, Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa.